"warming up" cold walls / chimney

davethecat

Hello there!

I'm after a little advice if I may..

I've just moved into an old house & despite issues our landlord is working on, I'm hoping to perhaps pick your collective brains.

Our main bedroom spans the front of the terrace house, it used to be 2 bedrooms, a double & a box room I assume. When I open the bedroom door it's lovely & toasty as the radiator kicks out some heat but as you move to the other side of the room, the temp seemingly drops. The central heating can be on for hours & yet the baby temp monitor barely reaches 18c. The thermometer is set up on my unit next to the chimney breast & I'm sure this is pulling the heat out or diluting it - I hope that doesn't sound daft.

Anyway, what I am pondering is - is there anything I can do to stop this draft or to warm the walls as such. I'm on maternity pay at the moment so cheaper the better & as we are renting it can't be anything too drastic either.

I'm open to ideas so please feel free to chip in - thanking you all in advance xx

BitterAndTwisted

davethecat wrote: »

Hello there!

Our main bedroom spans the front of the terrace house, it used to be 2 bedrooms, a double & a box room I assume. When I open the bedroom door it's lovely & toasty as the radiator kicks out some heat but as you move to the other side of the room, the temp seemingly drops.

Sounds like you need another radiator on the other side of the room. Only one rad sounds inadequate for a room so large.

The central heating can be on for hours & yet the baby temp monitor barely reaches 18c. The thermometer is set up on my unit next to the chimney breast & I'm sure this is pulling the heat out or diluting it - I hope that doesn't sound daft.

I have absolutely no idea what you are telling us. What's important is where the central-heating thermostat is positioned. 18 degrees sounds pretty toasty to me.

Anyway, what I am pondering is - is there anything I can do to stop this draft or to warm the walls as such. I'm on maternity pay at the moment so cheaper the better & as we are renting it can't be anything too drastic either.

Depends on where the draft is coming from. The chimney? That's much more likely to be sucking the warn air up and out. I'm sure the birds perched up there are very grateful.

If you have a chimney does this mean you have the potential for an open fire? If not, it needs to be blocked up with a ventilation brick in it. Are there thermostatic valves on the rads?

babyshoes

18 degrees sounds pretty toasty to me.

It is certainly warm enough for a healthy adult wearing enough clothing, not so much for a new baby or someone who is sick or elderly.

If you are not using the chimney, you can block it up simply and easily with something like scrumpled up newspaper or old pillows tied up in bin bags. We used to have an awful draft from ours until we blocked it. We are also in rented accomodation so couldn't do anything permanent! You can also consider hanging decorative carpets/tapestries or even just pretty fabrics on cold outside-facing walls as a layer of insulation. If you have tall bookshelves filled with stuff, consider putting those against outside walls too if they will fit.

Check windows for drafts by moving a lit candle around slowly at that end of the room. If a window is drafty, you can buy rolls of self adhesive foamy stuff to fill in the gaps. It is quite cheap at DIY shops like Wilkos or B&Q. You just peel off the paper on one side and stick it along the windowframe.

Also, rather than having the heating up high then turning it off when you get too warm, rather have it on a medium or low heat all the time so the walls won't have a chance to get cold again, and just turn it up a few degrees from time to time if you get cold.

If that doesn't help, maybe consider looking for a small portable radiator to go in that end of the room - oil filled ones cost more to buy but cost a lot less to run. Also don't forget to ask nicely on Freecycle/Freegle before you buy one!

Oh, and, ask the landlord about loft and cavity wall insulation, if applicable. If you are on certain benefits, you may be eligible for free or cheap installation. I don't know the details, but there are bound to be threads on here about it!

Good luck!

meritaten

I would guess that the radiatior is on one side of the room? the room sounds large if it is the width of the terraced house.
I would try having an extra radiator installed on the other side of the room. see if that helps. it could be the plug in electric kind or oil filled if its too expensive to add another rad to your central heating. even putting it on for an hour or so before bedtime can make a difference.

If you are on benefits then having loft insulation is free - cavity wall insulation is free too - but the property has to be of the right construction and the landlord has to agree.

davethecat

Thanks all.

The chimney has been bricked off but I don't think it's been insulated that well as it seems to "radiate" the cold - my other half thinks I'm barmy but I do worry about our little boy - he's only 14 weeks so I'm still struggling with overprotective first time mummy nerves.

The LL doesn't seem to be that quick in responding to our calls - a week to get a plumber out regarding a few of the other radiators so i don't think they will agree to putting another in unfortunately & we don't qualify for benefits either. We have seen that NPower offer an insulation service for £150 so we might raise this with her - see if she'll go halves.

I have a spare 90x90 curtain that I might fix to the wall somehow - I guess it would add some cheer too.

Thank you for the advice about the heating system - we've moved from a small 1 up 1 down with storage heating that was so cheap to run but incredibly effective so it's been a bit of a worry moving to a bigger house with new heating system - im learning quickly!

xx

BitterAndTwisted

davethecat wrote: »

My other half thinks I'm barmy but I do worry about our little boy - he's only 14 weeks so I'm still struggling with overprotective first time mummy nerves.


Of course you are, it's only natural. You won't be worrying at all by the time you've given birth to your seventh!

If your baby is too cold he will cry. Feel the back of his neck: if it feels warm he will be feeling fine. I doubt very much that a newborn baby would suffer from hypothermia in a room at 18 degrees Centigrade if they're fully dressed, I promise you.

I am of the generation who were born and raised in houses with no heating at all bar a coal fire in the living-room. Ice on the inside of the bedroom windows in winter etcetera. We were dressed very warmly and never ran around indoors naked or half-naked or without socks and slippers on: vest, tops and jumpers were worn and always socks on in bed. I think it made us hardy.

I really would not advise completely sealing off the chimney: this can cause damp to come through and that's the last thing you want in a new rental because your landlady would be fully justified in charging you for putting it right.

Ditto shoving book-cases right against the walls if they're external ones. That's one way to almost guarantee you get mould developing behind them.

squeaky

Hiya

I think this question would be best asked on our In My Home board so I'll move it across for you.

Good luck

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blossomhill_2

Hoi there

We had this problem and papered the interior of our outside walls with polystyrene from Homebase B&Q - can use as an underlining for ordinary wallpaper - may not be the most dramatic result you could achieve but really made a difference at minimal effort and cost for us

Slight downside - it does dent if you lean furniture against it

macman

Are the rads hot all over? Have you bled them?

DVardysShadow

2 points.

The old classic about where radiators should go. They should go on external walls under windows. If they are on internal walls, they set up a circulating draft, warm air to the windows at high level, cold air from the windows at foot level.

The other issue is blocking up the chimney. Don't do it. But on the other hand, you don't need the benefit of the full potential howling gale to prevent damp. I use about 0.5m of 40mm plastic waste as the core of a wad of fibreglass, which I wedge up the chimney, out of sight. This seems to allow adequate ventilation in my experience. As a rental property, I suppose you never know whether the fire will be used again, possibly by people who are naive about such things, so you may need to think about taking it out and consequential mess when you leave.

davethecat

Some interesting points here, thanks everyone for taking the time out to respond. The rads have been bled, a new weekly task for my fella & we are hoping to see the plumber again this week following his previous visit putting additive in the system - very tempted to move my wardrobe against the chimney breast too!